SAP Customer Success Story | Oil and Gas | BPCL

BPCL: Delivering New Functionality

Faster and Reliably with SAP
Software and SAP Enterprise Support
2013 SAP AG or an SAP afliate company. All rights reserved.
2 / 8 2013 SAP AG or an SAP afliate company. All rights reserved.
SAP Customer Success Story | Oil and Gas | BPCL
Company
Bharat Petroleum Corporation
Ltd.
Headquarters
Mumbai, India
Industry
Oil and gas
Revenue
US$45 billion
Web site
www.bharatpetroleum.com
SAP solutions and services
SAP Enterprise Support
services, SAP Solution Manager
application management
solution, SAP Quality Center
application by HP, and SAP Test
Acceleration and Optimization
application
Serving business users better through
automated testing
The IT organization at Indias Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) provides
technical support for business users throughout the oil and gas giants vast enterprise.
To meet emerging needs, more than 14,000 SAP software users count on quick
delivery of reliable new software with leading-edge functionality. This calls for a robust
testing environment that delivers the reliability users need and test automation to help
ensure rapid delivery.
Read more
To serve its users better, the IT organization cre-
ated a robust, highly automated testing solution.
First, the staf documented the companys busi-
ness processes and then used that information as
the basis for its testing environment. Since the ma-
jority of BPCLs processes use SAP software, the
group implemented testing software from SAP and
engaged assistance from SAP Enterprise Support
services delivered by the SAP Active Global Sup-
port organization.
SAP transferred its knowledge of the testing soft-
ware and best practices so well that the IT team
became self-sufcient and is now managing its test
assets completely on its own. With the automated
testing solution, the IT organization is fulflling its
promises to users better than ever, as proven by
the companys recent upgrade of its highly com-
plex environment using the SAP ERP application. It
was a smooth afair on schedule, within budget,
and with no major issues after going live.
3 / 8 2013 SAP AG or an SAP afliate company. All rights reserved.
Introduction
Vision
Why SAP
Implementation
Solution and services
Benefts
Future plans
SAP Customer Success Story | Oil and Gas | BPCL
Hurdling challenges and fulflling
aspirations
With 14,000 employees working at home and abroad
and US$13 billion in assets, BPCL is one of Indias
largest oil and gas companies. The company prides
itself on customer service, environmental friendli-
ness, social responsibility, and a record for reliably
serving the needs and interests of both its employ-
ees and its shareholders.
BPCL runs most of its operations with SAP ERP and
other software from SAP, but it uses some non-SAP
software as well. Users located across more than 350
locations employ these applications in their daily work.
BPCL has a dynamic business environment where
challenges and aspirations can change overnight. To
remain highly nimble and able to respond quickly to
business environment shifts, its essential for BPCL
to maintain state-of-the-art functionality for its IT
infrastructure.
As a result, the IT staf members created the compa-
nys automated testing solution. They wanted to better
satisfy the constant need to enable new function-
alities by bringing new and changed software into
production frequently, swiftly, and with high levels of
reliability. They also needed to reduce dependence
on key developers responsible for changes, who had
always been required personally to conduct manual
testing of new and changed software.
14,000
Employees
4 / 8 2013 SAP AG or an SAP afliate company. All rights reserved.
SAP Customer Success Story | Oil and Gas | BPCL
A valuable source for software
and process expertise
BPCL knew that a vital prerequisite for an automated
testing solution was a thorough understanding of
the business processes employed by its users. Only
then could developers know exactly what to test
when fnding and fxing defects in the software. For
this reason, the company prepared for automating
the testing environment by documenting its busi-
ness processes. Besides forming the foundation
for software test and change management, creat-
ing this documentation had many other benefts. It
enhanced transparency into the way the company
operates, and it enabled an important future step:
business process monitoring.
The SAP Solution Manager application management
solution was the ideal medium for documenting
BPCLs business processes. It has been tightly inte-
grated not just with SAP ERP but also with the key
applications comprising the testing software from
SAP, including the SAP Quality Center application by
HP and the SAP Test Acceleration and Optimization
application.
However, the IT group wanted more from SAP than
just the right tools for the project. It had a goal of be-
coming a world-class enterprise resource planning
competency center, providing ongoing value to the
business through process innovation and the use of
new technologies. The IT organization desired to be
a trusted partner to business users collaborating
with them on decision making, delivering knowledge-
based leadership, and proactively fnding ways to
satisfy their needs. For such an ambitious goal, the
IT team chose SAP Enterprise Support services to
get a better understanding of the software and learn
best practices.
Introduction
Vision
Why SAP
Implementation
Solution and services
Benefts
Future plans
5 / 8 2013 SAP AG or an SAP afliate company. All rights reserved.
SAP Customer Success Story | Oil and Gas | BPCL
Outstanding collaboration
BPCL documented all its business processes in SAP
Solution Manager, including those that are con-
ducted with non-SAP software, and proceeded to
automate testing of all transactions related to SAP
software. Transactions using other software are cur-
rently tested manually.
BPCLs strategy was to automate the testing of end-
to-end business processes, rather than individual
transactions impacted by a change. This made for
more efcient and efective use of its automated
testing solution. In the fnal tally, the IT team was
able to automate testing of 135 business scenarios
that contain 764 business processes and 3,200 indi-
vidual process steps. These automated tests can be
used to create technical bills of materials needed by
the business process change analyzer functionality
of SAP Solution Manager.
Experts from SAP Enterprise Support assisted the
IT organization in many ways throughout the imple-
mentation. The SAP team shared product and best-
practice expertise and actively collaborated with
BPCL to meet project expectations. To help ensure
success, BPCL joined SAP Enterprise Support Advi-
sory Council, a group of customers and SAP working
together to improve the oferings around SAP Enter-
prise Support.
BPCL opted for minimal on-site support from SAP,
except for training and a proof of concept. Choos-
ing these services gave the IT team the support it
needed to conduct future implementations on its
own a key step in developing in-house competence
to manage and enhance its test assets.
Introduction
Vision
Why SAP
Implementation
Solution and services
Benefts
Future plans
6 / 8 2013 SAP AG or an SAP afliate company. All rights reserved.
SAP Customer Success Story | Oil and Gas | BPCL
Closed-loop testing built around
SAP Solution Manager
BPCLs testing solution is a fast and convenient way
to generate automated test cases. The test manage-
ment process begins with the defnition of require-
ments and creation of a business process repository
in SAP Solution Manager that contains information
about all business processes. The requirements are
then transferred to SAP Quality Center, which is used
to complete a risk assessment and schedule. SAP
Quality Center is then used to develop or update a
test case and create a traceability matrix by linking
test cases to requirements or vice versa. Next, SAP
Test Acceleration and Optimization is used to create
reusable, automated test components. Finally, SAP
Quality Center runs automated tests, reports results,
and transfers these results back to SAP Solution
Manager.
The team developed change control processes that
are designed to ensure that business process docu-
mentation is always updated when any change is
made to the software.
With the expertise of SAP Enterprise Support, we were able
to automate 60% of our test cases and complete our upgrade
project on time.
Sanjay Mehrishi, Chief Manager, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd.
Introduction
Vision
Why SAP
Implementation
Solution and services
Benefts
Future plans
7 / 8 2013 SAP AG or an SAP afliate company. All rights reserved.
SAP Customer Success Story | Oil and Gas | BPCL
Smooth, issue-free upgrade for a quick
return on investment
Shortly after the automated testing environment
went live, it faced its frst big test an upgrade of
SAP ERP to a major new enhancement package
that had a tight schedule. The IT team used its test
repository fully to run automated test cases, which
helped decision makers better understand areas
that are impacted by a change and form a corrective
action plan.
There were almost no issues after going live far fewer
than in any upgrade project previously undertaken
by BPCL even though the technical infrastructure
is quite complex. Since anyone on the team could
run the business processes, the team did not have to
depend on specifc individuals with certain expertise.
Introduction
Vision
Why SAP
Implementation
Solution and services
Benefts
Future plans
The automated testing tools from SAP have helped BPCL save
costs and obtain a quick return on investment by minimizing
the testing resources we need to engage.
Sanjay Mehrishi, Chief Manager, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd.
8 / 8
BPCL
Even more ahead
BPCLs next step is to integrate the test assets,
which have already been automated with its regular
change management processes. In the future, the
IT team intends to conduct an impact analysis
on its business processes directly from its change
requests.
The frm is also planning to bring other documenta-
tion into the business process repository (such as
confgurations, procedures, and manual testing) and
integrate it with its change management processes.
BPCL will also enable system-based intervention in
its testing strategy by using SAP Test Acceleration
and Optimization.
Introduction
Vision
Why SAP
Implementation
Solution and services
Benefts
Future plans
CMP24441 (13/04) 2013 SAP AG or an SAP afliate company. All rights reserved.
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